Five Minutes To Midnight
by ice illuser
Summary: They have no idea, but as their lives spin out, they tick closer and closer to the end.


Disclaimer: I think if I claimed that I owned Watchmen, I would probably have something rather gruesome occur to me. So to avoid or at least delay a bloody ending, I don't own Watchmen in any way or form.

A/N: I've actually never read the graphic novel, but I did see the movie twice by now. I know that's no replacement, but I did like the ending in the movie better since someone actually cared that Rorschach died. (Rorschach and Nite Owl seriously act like a divorced married couple.) I wanted to expand on some of the secondary characters, so it turned into this. Please enjoy.

--

Moloch (or Edward Jacobi now; he's no longer Moloch, that's over) wonders sometimes what actually separates a hero from a villain. Sure, he stole a lot and had killed some people, but the Comedian had done all that and worse, all while grinning broadly and chomping on that ever present cigar.

Of course, some of those actions had been politically sanctioned like in Vietnam, but how much did that excuse anything in the end? Besides, he had heard rumors that the Comedian hadn't left the Minutemen on his own; the Minutemen had pushed out the Comedian over some ugly situation involving Silk Spectre.

He thinks sometimes that the Comedian is simply is another villain who found a way to direct all his sadism into catching other villains. And get paid for it to boot.

He usually thinks this as he searches for a job that will take an ex-supervillain as infamous as Moloch the Mystic and inevitably goes home each night to his cramped apartment empty-handed. He could have done that, couldn't he? If they had hired someone as twisted as the Comedian to clean up the streets, in a different place, in a different time, they could have hired him, couldn't they?

No matter, it was usually then that he shoved all those thoughts aside. It was pointless to think this way. First, he needed to find a job or he would end up like that red-haired vagrant carrying a sign proclaiming "The End Is Nigh" that he sometimes saw on his job searches across town.

He had heard of some company called Pyramid Transnational that was hiring ex-felons. That sounded promising. Maybe he could try to get a job there.

_Tick._

--

Hollis thinks it's a bit strange to pass on his masked identity to someone else. It's not like Daniel Dreiberg is his son, the way Sally made her daughter become Silk Spectre II, but when the kid had shown him all the gadgets he had created, he was sold. Ah, what gadgets they were, with that owl shaped airship Archie the crown jewel of it all. What he could have done with technology like that…

Of course, that was all over now. That was the point of passing on the cowl; you couldn't have two Nite Owls running around at the same time now, could you?

But sometimes, as he cleans his hands of the black grease from his job as an auto mechanic, he wishes he was out there again, cleaning up the city, making a difference, _living. _

That's not possible now though, not with his name on a bestselling book on all the Minutemen. He knows that some of them view him as a traitor to the cause, but nearly all of them are gone now. The only one still active is of course the Comedian.

It's a new generation's turn now (besides the Comedian. He wasn't even sure if that guy _could _die). Dan had been talking about how Ozymandias had wanted to create a group modeled after the Minutemen, the Watchmen. He wasn't sure he approved, even if Ozymandias was the smartest man in the world, considering what it had actually been like in the Minutemen. You put a bunch of people who for whatever reason put on masks and costumes to fight crime, and there were always going to be problems.

Take Dan's partner, Rorschach. While Hollis was aware that the fearsome inkblot man had terrified half of the gangs into submission, he was still always listening at some point or another to Dan ranting about how stubborn Rorschach was. He personally had misgivings about a personality who would choose to wear cloth with shifting ink as a mask and always talked in grunts or monosyllabic sentences devoid of personal pronouns, but Dan had reassured him (mid-rant as was often the case) that Rorschach always watched his back. That was what partners were for after all.

He shrugs as he takes out a six-pack of beer in anticipation of another visit from Dan. It's been a week, and Rorschach by now has inevitably done something else to warrant a ranting session from Dan, be it kicking the locked door to his house open (again) or refusing to take a shower after traversing through the sewers. They really did act like a married couple sometimes, but he assumed Dan knew what he was doing.

At least, he hoped Dan did.

_Tick. _

--

Janey knows it's not easy to date the famed Dr. Manhattan. She gets strange looks in the lab, her mother tearfully asks her, "Don't you want kids?", and more than a few reporters have asked if she's scared of getting something like cancer by staying with him.

The answer is no to all of them because Jon is more important to her than any hypothetical child, and Jon wouldn't let something like cancer happen to her. She's not worried about anything like that; she's much more worried about how she can no longer read him. In the beginning, after his miraculous return to life, she could still look into his glowy, blue eyes and see the love for her burn in them, along with a sadness she couldn't place. Now, it's all blank, and he gets farther and farther away from her everyday.

It's not just the fact that he has godlike powers and perception of time, it's the fact that he doesn't age. She knows that she's no longer the same girl in the photo taken so many years ago when he was still human. There are many more lines on her skin, but he looks as he always did when he reappeared. She thinks he always will.

And ever since he joined the Watchmen, he's been looking at that girl. The one who runs around in yellow and black latex without a mask.

The sixteen year old girl.

She doesn't know what she's supposed to think, much less do. The one she gave up everything for is chasing jailbait. She thought…she had thought that he would be above that sort of thing; he was practically a god for crying out loud. But no, he's just the same as all those men she had told herself that she would never get involved with, because they would always leave you in the end.

Sometimes she wonders what they could have had if he hadn't forgotten his watch in the experiment room. That would have been a completely different world, one where perhaps they would have lost that war in Vietnam, and maybe it's selfish to think this way, but maybe they would have been happy together.

She wants that life. She wants that world where she's happily married with Jon, she has kids, and there are no masks running around.

Who watches the Watchmen indeed. Sometimes she wonders if there will be a day where Jon sees life as much too disorderly in this universe where he can understand everything except for humans and will simply decide to end it all. A few years ago the thought would never have crossed her mind, but she doesn't know this blue demigod anymore even though she still loves him.

Which is why it hurts so much as she screams at him, crying, her mascara streaking, throwing back those diamond earrings he had given her for Christmas, that he just looks tired as though he _just doesn't care anymore. _

Where did it all go wrong? It should never have been this way. And yet it was.

Surely Jon must have known. That was why he had always stared at her with such indefinable sadness, because he had always known that one day they would be standing here like this.

She will always love him, even as she screams that she hates him, but she will always regret his return as Dr. Manhattan (not Jon, never Jon, because Jon died the day Dr. Manhattan was born).

_Tick. _

--

Sally knows she's not really one to talk about relationships, but she still doesn't approve of Laurie's new relationship with Dr. Manhattan. It's not just the fact that he's blue and glowy, or that he's so much older than her daughter, or even that some people are calling Laurie a homewrecker for breaking up Manhattan's relationship with his old girlfriend. It's mainly because she knows that mask relationships hardly ever ended well.

But of course Laurie doesn't listen to her. She snaps at her and tells her to mind her own business, to stop trying to live her own superhero life through her again. It's her own life, and she wants to do it her own way.

And that's fine; that's basically what she was like back then too, but still. Laurie's so stubborn.

So stubborn in fact that she reminds Sally of her Laurie's father at times. Which is not a reassuring thought at all.

The Comedian.

Eddie Blake.

She still can't completely reason out why she loves him. She has every right to hate him, and yet she doesn't. She supposes half of it is because she got Laurie from the whole mess, but that can't be all of it really.

He doesn't know of course. She can't even figure out how to tell Laurie, much less him. She's not even sure how he would respond to the news. Smirk like always? Glare? Be surprised that finally, the joke was on him?

Laurie though, she knows would be dismayed and perhaps even disgusted. She doesn't remember the argument she walked into years ago thankfully, and Sally sincerely hopes it will stay that way.

It's not like they need more things to argue over. Laurie resents her for making her become Silk Spectre II, but what else could she have been? A housewife?

Laurie doesn't see it that way, but she really should be thanking Sally. After all, if she hadn't forced Laurie into becoming a mask, she would have never met Dr. Manhattan.

She hopes that her daughter has much better luck in love than she had.

_Tick. _

--

Working as the personal secretary for _the _Adrian Veidt can be quite strange at times. She didn't have to worry about a lecherous boss since Mr. Veidt seemed to consider that his own personal business (although she can guess), but along with the other crap a normal secretary had to put up with (mostly piles of paperwork), she was now getting calls about some sort of genetically engineered lynx.

She had thought it was a crank call, but when she had informed Mr. Veidt, he had perked up and asked for all the details. Evidently he had commissioned it, it was supposed to be blue or purple (she still wasn't quite sure what his obsession with purple was), and its name was Bubastis.

After the ancient Egyptian city, he had happily informed her (also, what was his obsession with Alexander the Great and Egypt? She had already heard the Alexander the Great speech five times by the end of her first month working for him). She was too busy trying to process the eccentricity of it all to respond.

There's also the fact about how many different fields Veidt Enterprises is involved in. Toys, energy sources, cosmetics, household appliances; they're even building a research facility down in Antarctica now. It's going to be called Karnak or something like that.

Her job obviously has many perks though. The employee benefits and package of Veidt Enterprises are overwhelming and of course Mr. Veidt is such a gorgeous man…not that she actually wants to go out with him. She suspects that he's not inclined that way anyway.

But that doesn't mean staring at him doesn't make time fly by much faster if she's bored. Plus, she gets to go to lots of fancy parties with Mr. Veidt these days for appearances sake.

It's really fun, and she loves her job.

Even if she's forced to go to Antarctica a few times in order to see how Karnak is going. And make sure the progress on the lynx called Bubastis is coming along smoothly.

_Tick. _

--

Rorschach claims that Walter died the night Blair Roche did, but the fact is that he's still there. Hidden, quiet, simply observing, but still alive.

After all, Rorschach would never accept the mercies of strangers to stay alive. Rorschach had enough issues with simply accepting the grappling gun Daniel had made for him ("No. Don't need. Fine like this."), but Walter doesn't mind picking thrown coins off the concrete if it gets him something to eat.

It wasn't Rorschach's idea to walk around with a sign proclaiming "The End Is Nigh", it was Walter's. Rorschach knows one day the gutters will overflow and flood the streets with blood, and he doesn't care, but Walter does. Walter carries this warning with him every day, as small and insignificant as it might seem.

Sometimes they see people they know on the streets. Of course they don't recognize Walter, that's the point of Rorschach after all. Rorschach refuses to even look at them; it's too risky. Walter however is always irresistibly drawn to watching them walk down the streets. He never says anything, never reaches out, but sometimes he wishes that he could.

Especially when Daniel hurries down the street, coat rumpled and glasses always slightly askew.

Rorschach sneers and calls him a flabby failure, but Walter knows that deep down, they both miss him. If Rorschach didn't, he wouldn't take care of the grappling gun with the same care he gives to his face (of course his excuse is that it would be a shame to waste something so useful, but they both know that's only half of it). Sometimes, when they run out of sugar cubes or things to eat in general, they break into his house (it's never been that difficult of a task) just to root through the cabinets to grab some beans or sugar cubes. If Daniel notices, all he does is put a better lock on the front door that they still kick open with ease.

It's like before, except it's not, because they never talk to Daniel anymore. And when they walk the streets, there's no Archie to return to, no one to plan the patrol out with, no one to watch their back (not that either of them ever needed it). They walk the streets alone now, like it was before they ever met Daniel, but back then they had never even considered having a partner.

The streets are getting worse now. With the Keene Act passed, there's not enough masks running around to maintain order. They try their best, but more filth floods the streets every night. Rorschach responds by becoming more and more vicious, snapping more fingers, and brutally pounding those vermin into pulp. Walter writes the letters on his sign bigger than before, in the hopes that someone, anyone will get the point.

But no one does of course.

They've seen Veidt a few times when walking through the better parts of town where they will always eventually be asked to leave. Rorschach wants to punch him in the face for giving up the fight to run an obscenely wealthy company. Walter stifles the same urge by giving no sign of recognition and gripping his sign harder.

Nighttime is Rorschach's time, but Walter does lend him extra force when they are erasing society of a particularly disgusting piece of filth. And when they are injured (which is more often than Rorschach would like to admit since they don't have the advantage of Daniel's armor), it's Walter who patches them up with whatever they can buy and pilfer from Daniel's medicine cabinet.

Neither of them cares much for hygiene. What's the point when filth runs the streets?

Sometimes (usually only after an extremely bad night), they wonder if their time is running out. Nearly all the masks are gone now, and there's only Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian who are officially sanctioned. Dr. Manhattan will probably live forever, but one day the Comedian will die.

One day they too will meet a bloody end somewhere. What then? Dr. Manhattan does work for the government; he isn't like Rorschach attempting to clean up one city by exterminating all the vermin they can reach. When they are gone (and they both know that day can't be far off now), will there be anyone to take up their cause?

Or will everyone sit around, as bloated and fat as Daniel (Walter points out that Daniel is simply chubby, and Rorschach glares him into silence) and ignore the world slowly falling into pieces around their ears?

That seems the most likely scenario right now, but both of them ignore it. As long as they breathe, as long as they live, as long as there is still filth contaminating the city, they'll walk the streets at night.

Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon.

_Tick. _

_Five minutes to Midnight._

--

A/N: …..hm. HM. I'm not sure how I liked this. It started off as a minor character fleshing out drabble, and turned into five pieces ticking off time before everything is set into motion. As you can see, it's all movie-verse, which is probably why there are most likely time incongruities in there. I stuck the secretary in there because I was always wondering who she was in the movie. She never had a name, did she? Pyramid Transnational could have been created before Veidt's scheme, right? Was it OOC? Did Rorschach come off as too insane? Was it strangely ironic? Please review.


End file.
